The Pinnacle Award!

Early last week, I won the SE Pinnacle award for giving back as part of leading the Big Data Community Outreach Program for the West Division. It was a great honor, one I could not have reached without the support of an excellent team of people here. This post is a thank you, a look at what we have accomplished as a team and what we are working on.

When Nick called me to ask me to take the lead, I jumped at the opportunity. We had a group of 10 SEs in the GSAP community that had 12 weeks to get in front of some kids at each school. The team pulled together to speak at schools ranging from preschool to high school. They created new content and we built a small community.

Brian Weir created content to help us contact the schools to facilitate appointments. He is currently working to facilitate a Coding event for Girls at the Boys and Girls club in San Diego in December. Derek Enri presented the first Disney Magic Band presentation to half a gym full of Kindergartners and first graders. He helped me modify the content to fit the middle school age group. Mike Phillips joined up with Brian, Nick and Jack to present the original content to some kids in LA. They added a Big Data fun facts presentation that excited several groups of kids across the division. Mike has been instrumental on the school recruiting front this year, bringing in an entire district in Northern California that is excited to learn more about what we do with technology. He is also working to adjust content for schools who want a more career-oriented discussion. Dana Young, Kari Cushing and I teamed up at a local school to present and share the original content to two classes. It was awesome to have involvement from SE Management and HR locally. Dana was very helpful in getting us into the local school on short notice. Yaser Najafi and Chris Frame went to a middle school for Career Day and spoke about big data. Chris McNally, Steve Egert and Kyle Stevens spent time getting the word out about the program and trying to get into schools. All have helped with content ideas, feedback and providing local leadership to encourage others to participate.

Through our team effort, SE participation for this school year is over 40 SEs across the division spanning account and specialty. We have 2 school districts and a few standalone schools requesting regular visits from the team. We are building on the original exciting, relevant content in ways that can be shared with the broader SE community through great program leaders like Brian Carpenter, who led the charge in Texas. A special thanks to Dan O’Brien, who helped us kick off this program and continues to support our efforts today. Dan, your leadership in this area has opened my eyes to another side of EMC and it is a joy to share it with others.

Thanks to EMC for recognizing me for the efforts out here in the West. Thank you to all of the other award nominees for the awesome work you do! Thank you to the team in the west for making this program a continued success. Thank you to all who have participated or plan to participate in this program; I believe your participation makes a big difference for the future of our company.